Tim Monaco - Bioletics Director of Client Education

Training and racing present many challenges for the endurance athlete to manage. One of these factors that are often overlooked is how important your nutrition is in optimizing your performance. Establishing a good nutritional strategy is truly the most important factor in endurance sport and the longer your event, the more important it becomes.

Off the Road

When looking at your day-to-day training and recovery there are a few things that you need to pay attention to:

• Overall caloric needs
• Metabolic Type – Macronutrient intake
• Food quality - Nutrient density

Determining you overall caloric needs is an in-exact science, due to individual metabolic variability. There are devices that you may use to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR), testing to get a benchmark for the amount of calories you burn in a day (without exercise) or you can get a good estimate of BMR using one of the calculators available on-line (http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html). Once you have your BMR you can determine additional caloric needs by using a similar calculator for exercise (http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml).

Another more exact way to track calories burned is to use a power meter on your bike and/or a Garmin GPS to track your running. 

Once you have an idea of your caloric needs, this will allow you to monitor your diet and to be able to manage your food intake appropriately. In many cases endurance athletes do not eat enough calories to sustain their training load and experience fatigue, lack of motivation and injuries because of it. This is also the biggest reason that athletes have trouble losing body fat. If you don’t meet your body’s caloric needs, the metabolism will down-regulate to become more efficient to use what you are giving it. You need to keep your caloric intake close to what you are burning in order for your body to burn body fat and up-regulate your metabolism.

Gross Diet

What you are eating also has an enormous effect on your performance. One of the unique services provided by Bioletics is access to Advanced metabolic typing through Health Excel. Everyone should take this test to determine their metabolic type and create a framework for their individual needs. This process will guide you to find the most appropriate ratios of carbohydrates, fats and protein that will best suite your biochemical and genetic needs. We are all unique and will thrive on our own particular diet. Finding the right balance will be the key to unlocking your athletic potential, as well as your overall health and longevity.

Once you have determined your metabolic type the next step is improving the nutrient density of your diet. Your goal should be to eat as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible. Eating locally produced and organically produced food is ideal. Getting more nutrients in your diet means you will have more of the raw materials you need to run all of the biochemical and metabolic systems of your body, and not just empty calories.

On the Road

Now that you are doing a better job with your overall diet, there are a few things that you should be aware of before, during and after training and racing:

• Pre-workout and pre-race
• Training and racing nutrition
• Post Exercise - Recovery/Glycogen storage

For pre-workout and pre-race, there are two basic strategies that may be followed. Traditionally, athletes just eat and drink whatever their stomach can handle. More recent research makes a good case for a specific strategy of limiting caloric intake to three hours before training and racing in order to limit insulin response and in the process sparing glycogen stores. For more on this: http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=KNOWLEDGE.  This is usually a trial-and-error process and everyone needs to work out what works best for them.

Whatever strategy you choose, what is more important is to be systematic with your calorie intake once you get moving. You will need to take in anywhere from 250-400 calories of carbohydrate per hour depending on numerous factors (body size, metabolism, how you are trained, heat, cold, wind, altitude, hydration, electrolyte balance, intensity, etc.). You may choose to use solid foods, bars, gels, fluid replacement and/or meal replacement drinks. Some athletes will perform better using a mixed calorie strategy, adding some protein and/or fat to this caloric intake. We recommend the Bioletics Essential amino acid formula as the ultimate delivery system for amino acids during exercise. This may be used alone as an energy source for some, or mixed with a carbohydrate if needed. What works for you will be a matter of preference and one of trial-and-error, but getting in the calories is mandatory to optimize your performance.

After your workouts and races it is critical to replenish glycogen stores (reserve energy stored in muscle and liver). Your body has a “glycogen window”, which is within 20 minutes after you finish. During this time your body has the most enzymatic activity to absorb and store the sugars in your blood stream and convert them into muscle and liver glycogen. If you miss the “window” you will likely have reduced glycogen stores and in turn have reduced performance and recovery for your next workout.  There are also some studies that suggest taking a mixed carbohydrate and protein drink in a 4-to-1 ratio will optimize glycogen replenishment. If you choose to try this strategy, we recommend the Sun Warrior Raw Vegan Rice Protein, available on our products page.  As always, you will need to experiment to find the right strategy for you.

Following these basic nutritional rules will get you aligned with the natural needs of your body and allow you to get the most out of your training and racing. Questions? Email me at tim@bioletics.com or call #888.371.1033